What We Will Cover Today

• Four Key Wilson Decisions – The Flawed Treaty of Versailles America Between the World – Refusal to accept any changes – The Decision Not to Resign the Presidency Wars – The Impact of the Treaty and the Failure to Ratify It • Class 2 – Origins of the Prohibition Movement – The 18th Amendment & the William A. Reader – Rumrunners, Bootleggers, & – Effects of Prohibition E‐mail: [email protected] – Why It was Repealed – The Aftermath

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Four Key Wilson Decisions –2 Four Key Wilson Decisions ‐ 3

• The decision to accept a flawed treaty in order • The Decision not to resign the Presidency to win foreign acceptance of the League of after his stroke Nations – Led to the U.S. being governed by Wilson’s wife – Treaty contained provisions and omissions that • This meant that the problems of postwar inflation, • Were politically unpalatable to the U.S. Senate demobilization, and recession were totally ignored • Were to cause future trouble – Let the Lodge Republicans dominate the debate • The refusal to accept any changes or over ratification of the Versailles Treaty • This sapped support for the Treaty and led to its reservations in the Treaty to win Republican eventual defeat support

3 4 Impact of the Treaty of Versailles Impact of Failed Ratification

• Led to great resentment in Germany • Greatly weakened the League of Nations – Signing the Versailles “diktat” weakened the • Fostered a sense of disillusionment Weimar Republic, giving the German Right (and – With World War I and its results the Nazis) a tool with which to attack the Republic – With U.S. participation in the war • Created instability in Eastern Europe – With U.S. engagement with the world – Created weak and unstable states • This in turn fostered a spirit of isolationism – Strengthened Germany strategically that was reflected in restrictive immigration – Constituted a peace settlement that neither laws, high tariffs, and the Neutrality Acts of Germany nor Soviet Russia supported the 1930s

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Wild West Origins of Prohibition ‐ 1

• Prohibition had its origins in the West –an area where crime rates were high and Prohibition drinking was common – As one historian noted, “A mixture of alcohol and kids with guns always causes problems” • Much of the Wild West violence and drunkenness was connected to the saloon

8 Wild West Origins of Prohibition ‐ 2 The Anti‐Saloon League

• As time passed, there was a growing presence • The Anti‐Saloon League of women and children. This – Knit together a wide constituency opposed to the – Changed the population structure liquor traffic and the saloon – Changed the moral climate, since most women – Focused on the single issue of liquor were moral conservatives – Willing to accept incremental gains • Moral reaction against the saloon led to the movement – Supported any politician willing to vote “dry” for Prohibition regardless of political party • Having their reform efforts blocked by politicians allied to the vice industries led to support for female voting – Prototype of the modern lobby group that uses its enfranchisement political power to influence public policy

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Liquor and Culture Clashes Role of the Saloon

• The Prohibition Movement provoked the first • Saloons integrated into urban political machine politics – Saloons often used as polling stations and as political gathering of the culture clashes that have marked sites th – Many saloonkeepers held political office American politics in the 20 century – Served as a clearinghouse for the exchange of money and favors – Middle class native Protestants vs Working class • Where the political boss met his petitioners and made deals ethnic Catholics and Lutherans • Provided services to neighborhood workers – Hiring halls • The saloon and ‘biergarten’ were important elements – Free (or cheap) meals of immigrant culture – Check cashing • Rising alcohol consumption after 1900 – Use of saloon safes to store valuables – Place for socializing with neighbors and fellow workers (i.e. the • Germans popularized beer drinking poor man’s club)

11 12 Beer and the Saloon The Prohibition Tide

• As the brewing industry became a big • The South becomes dry business, it developed close ties to the saloon • The Impact of Progressivism for the following reasons: • Dominance of draft beer • The Impact of Science • High license fees • The Impact of World War I • Close ties between brewers and saloons led to an overexpansion of the saloon trade • This led to saloons encouraging excess drinking • Also led to saloons allowing illegal activities to take place

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The South Goes Dry The Impact of Progressivism

• The South had traditionally opposed federal • Progressivism with its various reform laws mandates accustomed Americans to accept some • This changed, however, during the Progressive governmental controls to further the general Era as far as liquor is concerned welfare – Southern whites feared disorder and violence – Pure Food and Drug laws between blacks and lower‐class whites – Regulation of women’s and children’s labor – Saw liquor as fostering such disorder. Hence, – Factory safety laws growing Southern support for Prohibition – Consumer protection laws

15 16 The Impact of Science World War I & Prohibition

• By 1916, there was a lot of scientific evidence • World War I in support of limiting alcohol consumption – Fostered the belief that drink impeded industrial productivity and soldierly fighting ability – Alcohol was a depressant • Brewing and distilling diverted grain needed by the – Alcohol depressed higher mental functions troops and European allies into the creation of – Alcohol use was positively correlated with crime, products that inhibited the war effort prostitution, and poverty – Discredited the principal opponents of Prohibition –the brewers and the German‐American Alliance • Enabled the Anti‐Saloon League to successfully link liquor to disloyalty and beer‐drinking with sympathy to the kaiser and his Huns

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The 18th Amendment The Volstead Act ‐ 1

• Amendment forbade the “manufacture, sale, or • Defined an “intoxicating beverage” as one transportation of intoxicating liquors within … containing 0.5% alcohol the and all territories subject to its jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes.” • Forbade the manufacture, sale, transport, • Approved by Congress on November 21, 1917 importation, delivery, or possession of any • Ratified by Nebraska (the 36th state to do so) on January 16, intoxicating liquor except 1919 • Took effect on January 16, 1920 – Medicinal alcohol prescribed by a doctor • Did not define what were “intoxicating liquors” – Sacramental wine • Did not forbid the use or possession of liquor – Flavoring extracts and syrups containing alcohol

19 20 The Volstead Act ‐2 The Volstead Act –3

• Allowed brewers to manufacture near‐beer • Placed the Prohibition Bureau under the – Beer containing less than 0.5% alcohol Treasury Department and exempted its agents • Allowed households and grape growers to from civil service requirements produce non‐intoxicating cider, fruit juices, and fruit cakes • Allowed the possession and consumption of • Allowed the manufacture and sale of industrial alcoholic beverages that the possessor owned alcohol provided denaturants were added to and stored prior to January 1920 make it unpalatable • Provided a fine of $1,000 and/or 30 days in prison for the first offense

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Inherent Enforcement Problems Premonitions of Trouble

• Vastly inadequate staffing levels and • Warnings that the 2 million soldiers overseas appropriations would not like the new dispensation • 18,700 miles of unguarded land and sea borders • Difficulty in policing the legal traffic in alcohol • Experience of towns and states that had – Industrial Alcohol adopted Prohibition before 1920 – Near beer • Warning of ex‐President – Tracking liquor permits held by thousands of doctors and druggists (as well as permits for sacramental • Warnings that Prohibition would prove so wine) unpopular and unworkable that it would – Dried grape and raisin cakes • Illegal stills, breweries, and saloons () quickly be repealed

23 24 Rumrunners & the Real McCoy Loopholes &

• European shipping of liquor to nearby sites in • George Remus was a drugstore owner who Mexico, Canada, the Bahamas, and St Pierre & became a pharmacist and a mob lawyer Miquelon – Bought up “whiskey certificates” & got permission – Rumrunning ships & speedboats to sell whiskey to drug companies licensed to sell • American & European bank financing of liquor medicinal whiskey smuggling – Used the drug companies (many of them Remus • The ‘Real [Bill] McCoy’ fronts) to sell most of it to bootleggers, nightclub • owners, and middlemen – Olmstead vs United States

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Chicago & Al Capone ‐ 1 & Al Capone ‐ 2

• Before Prohibition, Chicago gangs involved in • After 1920, ‘Big Jim’ Colasimo, saloon owner gambling, ‘protection’ racketeering, and and brothel king, got involved with prostitution had established links with local bootlegging politicians • Many of the politicians and operated • Colasimo imported his nephew, Johnny Torrio, saloons and cafés to manage his illegal enterprises • ‘Big Jim’ Colasimo operated the Colasimo Café on – In 1920, Colasimo was probably killed by Johnny South Wabash Ave –the town’s hottest nightspot Torrio – The band by playing both opera medleys and jazz – Colasimo had the first of the expensive helped popularize jazz in the Chicago area ostentatious funerals

27 28 Chicago & Al Capone –3 Chicago & Al Capone –4

• Torrio took over Colasimo’s empire and: • The prospect of vast profits, however, caused the – Entered into an alliance with the former legal peace to break down, resulting in gang wars brewers who were eager to keep their breweries – One consequence was that Torrio decided to retire, leaving the enterprises to Capone going and capable of producing good beer • Capone, building on Torrio’s legacy, created a – Organized a temporary peace among the criminal empire bootleggers and racketeers – Included breweries, distilleries, speakeasies, – Brought in Al Capone to act as an enforcer nightclubs, brothels, gambling houses, and horse & dog racing tracks – Took in an estimated $105 million a year

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Chicago & Al Capone –5 The Effects of Prohibition ‐ 1

• The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre • Made a big business – Part of the long‐running gangland feuds that from – Whereas prostitution, racketeering, and gambling 1920‐1933 killed nearly 800 gangsters in Chicago had largely been local, rum‐running and – Brought Capone to the attention of Herbert bootlegging required organization, capital, and Hoover who put the Federal Government on links to gangs in other cities and supplies outside Capone’s case the U.S. • and the Untouchables to raid Capone’s – Provided upward social and economic mobility to breweries members of ethnic minorities excluded from • IRS audits of unpaid Federal income taxes legitimate enterprises by their ethnic background

31 32 The Effects of Prohibition –2 The Effects of Prohibition –3

• Made drinking fashionable among young • Notably decreased the amount of drinking people of college age overall in America • Made it respectable for women to drink in • Significantly decreased drinking among the public working class • Destroyed the old‐time saloons and created a • Changed patterns of public entertainment new culture of drinking in public • Created café society • Constituted the first of the ‘culture wars’ that • Popularized cocktail drinks were to beset America in the 20th ‐21st Centuries

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Why Prohibition Was Repealed ‐ 1 Why Prohibition Was Repealed ‐ 2

• Prohibition destroyed the forward‐looking • Movies helped turn the American people against optimistic image of Temperance Reform Prohibition th – Movie depictions of the urban jazz‐age flapper and – 19 Century Prohibitionists had supported her boyfriend conveyed the impression that drinking women’s suffrage and socio‐economic reform was widespread and that violating Prohibition laws – 1920s Prohibitionists became identified with was socially respectable nativism, anti‐Catholicism, the Ku Klux Klan, and – Many movies gave celebrity status to gangland puritanism. figures, magnified by the appearance in the early 1930s of films featuring such stars as James – Both the Anti‐Saloon League and the Klan suffered Cagney and Edward G. Robinson as appealing scandals that deeply tarnished their public images bootlegging entrepreneurs

35 36 Why Prohibition Was Repealed ‐ 3 The Aftermath of Repeal ‐ 1

• The emergence of a new middle‐class culture based on • Many of the major bootleggers became secular consumerism legitimate businessmen • The emergence of socio‐economic elite organizations dedicated to repeal • Other members of the bootlegging gentry – Association Against the Prohibition Amendment went into new avenues of organized crime • Included many prominent former drys who now supported repeal • The development of canned beer and the – Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform spread of home refrigeration made home • The impact of the Great Depression consumption of beer more popular – The Economic Argument – This diminished the role of both the saloon and – The 1932 election the restaurants, taverns, and bars that replaced it

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The Aftermath of Repeal –2

• After repeal, the disease concept of alcoholism began to dominate thinking about drinking • In contrast to WWI, the brewing trade in WWII was considered a vital war industry • The issues, problems, and culture conflicts that cropped up during Prohibition would resurface later

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